February 2024 Monthly Report

GULF COAST COMMUNITY SERVICES ASSOCIATION

Head Start/Early Head Start Support Services

February 2024 Monthly Narrative Report

LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

• Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) The January 2024 Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) claim was completed and submitted to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) for reimbursement. In January there were 16 food service days for the month. There were 16 eligible sites and 1,518 eligible children. The number of meals provided: 5,411 breakfasts; 5,517 lunches and 16,962 PM snacks served. Expected reimbursement for the month is $57,257.39

• Staff spent a significant amount of time preparing the submission of the Head Start 5 year grant application this month The application was approved by the board and policy council. The application is due March 1.

• GCCSA Family Empowerment Manager read to the children and staff for the February GCCSA Storytime! Mr Escobar read “My Family, Your Family” written by Lisa Bullard. In the story our Family Empowerment Manager shared, showed the different kinds of families! Translation was provided. Storytime broadcast live to all sites via ZOOM on their Promethean Boards every third Wednesday of the month.

• The HS/EHS Assistant Director attended her first “CHEF-ED Study” Advisory Board meeting. The advisory board is part of the Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine. Advisory board members are charged with giving input on establishing inter-generational cooking education to improve diet quality through an inntegrated parenting and healthy cooking program for low income families and young children.

• The GCCSA hosted an orientation on the Texas Mutual Driver Safety Training. All employees who use their vehicles for work related travel, will be required to take the full course.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT (CD)

• Early Head Start: Threes: Theme 6“Creative Me” - Week 1- Things Kids Do- Kids are naturally creative because they are not confined by the boundaries of conformity and social expectations that often inhibit adults. This week, the children will explore creative things kids do. Week 2- Recycled Treasure- Turning trash into treasure is what three-year olds love to do naturally. This week, children will learn how to turn everyday items (often discarded) into treasure. Week 3- Experimenting- Little ones are constantly experimenting. They use the trial- and- error process as they work a puzzle, try to put their shoes on correctly, or learn how to swing. This week they will learn about experimenting. Finding the right solution usually takes some creative thinking and problem solving.

• Toddlers: Theme- 5 “Colors” - Week 4- Black and White- This week the children will learn about black and white and review all the other colors they have learned about in this theme.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

• Theme- 6 “Shapes and Sizes” - Week 1- Circles- The children will learn about shapes over the next few weeks. When children learn to recognize circles and triangles, they are building early skills that will help them recognize numbers and letters. Week 2- Squares- This week children will learn about squares. The focus is on recognition. Even though we will count the sides and corners, we are not expecting children to know this information. It is simply exposure. Week 3- Triangles- This week children will learn about triangles. Triangles are not as common as circles and squares, but children often learn to recognize them easily because they have a distinct appearance.

Infants: Teachers implemented the Activity Trackers Card to plan activities according to each child’s individual need in both Infant classrooms.

• Raul Yzaguirre The February Theme at Raul was “Simple Machines” Investigation 1: How do inclined planes help us move things? Investigation 2: How are levers used? Investigation 3: How do screws hold things together? Investigation 4: What are the other types of simple machine? How do people use them? Investigation 5: Who works with simple machines?

• Collaboration Campuses: HISD collaboration sites utilize several curriculums. The primary curriculum is Savvas, Three Cheers for Pre-K. Curriculum Theme 6: “From Farm to Table”. Children learned all about farm foods and how they get delivered to our homes. Week 1- “How Food Goes From Farm to Store Shelves” Week 2 – “Baby Goes to Market” Week 3 “We Eat Food That’s Fresh” Week 4: “The Empanadas that Abuela Made.”

• Stand-Alone Curriculum: Head Start Stand-Alone sites implement the Frogstreet Pre-K curriculum. February theme was: Theme 6- “I Build, Create! / Puedo construir! Puedo crear!”. Sub themes students studied: Week 1: Construction Terms/ Terminos de construccion, Week 2: Tool and Machines/ Herramientas y maquinas, Week 3: I Can Build/ Puedo construir, Week 4: I Can Create/ Puedo crear.

• The Child Development team in collaboration with the Center Administrators and Operation Support have begun the initial planning for the Week of the Young Child (April 6-12) and the Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5 – 11). The Special Services and Health & Nutrition Managers are also a part of the planning.

HEALTH & NUTRITION (H/N):

Head Start program requires within 30 calendar days after the child first attends the program, the parent must be consulted to determine whether each child has ongoing sources of continuous, accessible health care and health insurance coverage. Currently Head Start enrollment is at 1297 and EHS is at full enrollment of 80.

Within 45 calendar days after the child first attends the program a program must either obtain or perform evidence-based vision and hearing screenings.

February Celebrated: Black History, Valentines Day and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

HEALTH & NUTRITION: (continued)

Within 90 days HS must obtain determinations from health care and oral health care professionals as to whether or not the child is up-to-date on a schedule of age appropriate preventive and primary medical and oral health care, based on: the well-child visits and dental periodicity schedules as prescribed by the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program of the Medicaid agency of the state in which they operate, immunization recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and any additional recommendations from the local Health Services Advisory Committee that are based on prevalent community health problems.

SPECIAL SERVICES (SS):

• The nutrition team continues to hold monthly check-in meetings with our vendor Healthy Lunch Box to express strengths and concerns. The meetings have been very productive, and improvement has increased.

• Standalone centers are in the process of enrolling their center with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for lead in drinking water testing.

• The Health team continues to complete vison and hearing screenings and send out notices for missing dental and physical forms.

• Head Start and Early Head Start requires that 10% of the Funded Enrollment includes children with disabilities. Head Start only recognized children with a disability that are eligible for services under Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). At the end of February 2024, it was determined 95 Head Start children and 7 Early Head Start Children are enrolled in the program that are identified with disabilities. GCCSA has a total of 102 children identified (6.7%). 70 children are identified with a speech impairment, 16 with Autism, 13 with Non-Categorical Early Childhood and 2 with Other Health Impairment and 1 with Hearing Impairment. In addition, the Special Services Department has 148 suspected Head Start children enrolled and 5 suspected Early Head Start children enrolled.

• The Special Services Manager met with Ms. Cherry Peipelman, Coordinator 1 for the South Division for HISD and Mekea Simon Coordinator 1 for the South Division for HISD to continue following up on all children referred to HISD. This is to ensure children are evaluated and provided with the services they need.

SPECIAL SERVICES (continued)

• IDEA is a law that makes available free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children who are identified with a disability. The Local Education Agency (LEA) holds the authority to identify children with disabilities. Please see the “Identified Children Per Campus” chart showing the number of children with disabilities per center.

Suspected Children:

• GCCSA’s Special Services Department is continuously enrolling children with suspected disabilities and their families for the 2023-2024 program year. As of the end of February 2024, 99 children have suspected speech concerns, 14 children have suspected Autism, 12 children have suspected social emotional concerns, and 24 children with both disability and social emotional concerns for a total of 148 suspected children suspected children. Please see the “Suspected Children Per Campus” chart showing the number of children with disabilities per center.

• Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings: The department assists with monitoring Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings. MDT meetings are held to ensure that children who are enrolled are given the opportunity to maximize the benefits of the program. For the month of February 2024, the Special Services Department obtained and attended 2 new MDT meeting reports from the agency’s content areas for a total of 68 meetings year to date

• Specialists’ Outcomes meetings were held this month. Meetings were held to discuss the status of children enrolled in Head Start & Early Head Start. Three separate meetings were held to allow small group discussions for MDT I, II and III. GCCSA Disabilities and Mental Health Providers Services - (Advance Plus, Carr Speech, Personal Touch, Eaden Counseling, Providential Counseling and ANC-D Psychological Services) The Mental Health Providers have completed Mental Health Classroom Observations.

• ANC-D Psychological Services provided parent training at Garden Villa Head Start and Foster The training held at Garden Villa focused on hyperactivity and autism. The training held at Foster Elementary focused on mental health and its effect on you and your child.

DEPARTMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM THE PREVIOUS MONTH:

• The Child Development team and Assistant Director held their monthly ECE meeting with SHINE member to discuss teachers’ CLASS assessment scores.

• The Child Development Specialists in Collaboration with Center Administrators and Human Resources conducted virtual interviews and submitted candidate recommendations to hire Teacher/Teacher Assistants/Teacher Aides.

Site Observation February 2024 Report:

• Site Observation Summary chart indicates the center visits made by the Health & Nutrition and Support Service Associates, Special Services Manager, Child Development, Family Empowerment, Health, Nutrition and Special Services Specialists for the month of February 2024. All GCCSA Site visits are required to provide support and meet the needs of children and staff at GCCSA Head Start and Early Head Start Centers.

HS/EHS Professional Development:

• The Child Development hosted professional development “Landing and Learning” – small group coaching. The presenter was Ms. Cheryl Angell, MS ED. She is the Early childhood Education Specialist, Region VI Head Start T/TA. The training was held in 4 small group settings.

• The Child Development team and SHINE

CPR/First Aide:

• For the month of February 2024, there were 24 staff that attended CPR/First Aide class and received their certifications, two (2) Center Administrator’s; three (3) Cook/Custodian’s; two (2) Family Service Specialist’s; two (2) Teacher Aide’s; two (2) Teacher Assistant’s; one (1) Teacher I; four (4) Teacher II’s and eight (8) Teacher III’s

New Hire Orientation:

• For the month of February 2024 there were two new hire orientations held. February 12 - 16, 2024 - two (2) Teacher III’s one (1) Teacher II and one (1) Cook/Custodian that joined our team. February 26 – March 01, 2024 – one (1) Teacher Aide; one (1) Teacher Assistant; two (2) Teacher II and four (4) Teacher III’s that joined our team. A total of 12 new staff joined our team in February. We welcome all New Hires!

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES/EVENTS/TRAINING HOSTED BY DEPARTMENT:

March 5 & 6 ERSEA Training

March 11-15

March 25- 29

March 20

Spring Break

New Hire Orientation

GCCSA Storytime

UPCOMING CONFERENCES TRAININGS HOSTED OUTSIDE OF GCCSA:

March 8

March 18

March 20

March 21

ECE/SHINE PDM Support/Needs Assessment Meeting

ECE/SHINE HS/EHS TSR Rollout Plan

06CH010958 GCCSA Monthly Meeting

HCC Child Development Advisory Board Meeting

REQUIRED TRAININGS: (Training that must occur because of funding or regulatory requirements)

• CACFP Required Training & Bi- Weekly CACFP & Cook Training

• CDA Training

• Civil Rights Training (annual)

• CLASS and Teacher Success Rubric Training for new and returning staff.

• Child Abuse and Neglect Training annually

• CPR & First Aid Training

• Coaching and Mentoring Strategies CD Specialists & Teachers

• Conscience Discipline Training (overview)

• Disability & Mental Health Training & Social Emotional Development for Children

• ERSEA Training - required annually.

• Food Handlers Certification

• Developmentally Appropriate Practices, Health and Safety, Teaching and Learning Environment, Curriculum & Assessment

• HS/EHS Policies and Procedures Training: Practice-Based Coaching, Effective Classroom Management.

• Medication Administration Training

• Orientation for New Employees, Parents & Providers

• Pedestrian Safety at First Parent Upcoming

• Technology in the Classroom Training

• SIDS/ Shaken Baby training.